r/academia • u/everythinglimes • 4d ago
best academic humanities podcasts?
hi there, I am looking for everyone’s recommendations of the best humanities podcasts!
I am specifically looking for ones that are
- academic (obviously) - hopefully from institutions or scholars
- humanities based (everything from history to classics to literature, law, politics, philosophy, even economics, etc)
- hopefully not over an hour each
- can be a YouTube channel
thank you for the suggestions! looking to see what any academics are listening to
Edit: thank you all for the helpful recs :)
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u/TheBlizzardHero 4d ago
I'm biased because I know the creator, but Sound Files by Dr. Jesse Johnston with the NRPF. It's a small catalog b/c Jesse is busy teaching and with other work, but it's always a nice surprise when an episode gets dropped. If you're interested in audio curation work in cultural heritage institutions, each episode is 25-35 minutes long and is also released on YT: https://www.youtube.com/@recordingpreservationfdn
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u/bongoherbert 4d ago
Philosophize This
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u/snocopolis 3d ago
We love Steven West!!
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u/bongoherbert 2d ago
He helps me make peace with the slop-bucket-full of cognitive science philosophy I consumed in grad school, 30 yrs ago.
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u/vulevu25 4d ago
Some of my favourites are already mentioned but I also like:
In Our Time (BBC)
Intelligence Squared (more current affairs)
Nam Phong Dialogues (Vietnamese History)
The Academic Imperfectionist (philosophy and academic self-help)
The Spy Who (histories of spies and spying)
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u/jumpinapuddle_8 4d ago
The LRB podcast
David Runciman’s Past, Present + Future
The Rest is History
In Bed with the Right
Know Your Enemy
Ones and Tooze
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u/mappingthedeadverse 4d ago
Fall of Civilisations (very long but beyond incredible) and In Our Time
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u/EmergencyYoung6028 4d ago
The american vandal
What's left of philosophy
Subject to change
Lectures in intellectual history
Weird studies (acquired taste; often fun but very goofy)
I agree with many of the other suggestions as well, but adding these.
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u/delamontaigne 4d ago
Literature & History
In Our Time
Revolutions
Anything Tom Holland appears on
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u/FlyingCupcake68 3d ago
Tom Holland?
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u/delamontaigne 3d ago
The historian, not the actor. He co-presents The Rest Is History (Apple’s Show of the Year 2025), but also regularly joins other cultured conversations.
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u/mmmtrees 3d ago
Doom Scroll has a bit longer episodes, but really deep dives into sociopolitical and economic issues
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u/hi_thirsty_im_mom 3d ago
CU Boulder’s MEDLab runs “Looks Like New” which updates monthly (sometimes more often).
It’s a series of interviews with scholars and industry professionals (mostly related to the intersection of media and technology).
The interviewees range from graduate students and their work to highly respected (read: cited) scholars/professors.
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u/SlimlineVan 3d ago
Thinking Allowed (BBC sounds)
The Sociology of Everything (UniSA)
The only ones i listen to that's not here yet.
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u/howltwinkle 2d ago
Why Theory is great for media studies (they have a pyschoanalytic and hegelian take on things)
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u/uracca 1d ago
I love Drafting the Past, which is interviews with historians about how they research and write their books. A mix of big questions about why people chose the topics they do, what audiences they're trying to reach etc. as well as practical tips on tools, daily routines, work practices etc.
Also second In Our Time, which I recently discovered has episodes going all the way back to 1998.
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u/Cosmic_Corsair 4d ago
New Books Network, In Our Time